Package



PACKAGE Filed Aug. 12, 1960 ATTORNEY Unite States Patent 3,056,493 PACKAGE William L. Berryman, Highland Park, and Morris A. Schwartz, North Plainfield, NJ., assignors to Johnson it Johnson, a corporation of New Jersey Filed Aug. 12, 196i?, Ser. No. 49,363 8 Claims. (Cl. 26o-63.2)

The present invention is drawn to a package of swabs of the type where the swab has a stem that contains an absorbent fibrous tip, The package of the present invention is particularly suitable for sample distribution of cotton or other absorbent fiber-tipped swabs.

The swabs of the packages of the present invention are of the cotton or other absorbent fiber-tipped type where the swab per se consists of a stem having secured to the end thereof a mass of absorbent bers. These bers, which may be cotton, rayon or other suitable fiber, are tightly wrapped around the end of the stem giving the swab a neat appearance and preventing the individual fibers from coming detached when the swab is in use, as in cleaning a scratch or minor cut, applying medication, or other conventional or normal usage of such swabs. The stem may be made of wood, stili paper or other suitable material.

It has heretofore been the practice in distributing samples of swabs of this type to place the same in an envelope the llap of which is then closed over to maintain the swabs therein. The envelope with swabs is then placed in a small cardboard box and the resulting package distributed. In order to reduce relative movement of the contained swabs, the envelope is generally filled with swabs so that there is not sucient room for much relative movement to occur between adjacent swabs. This relative movement is objectionable since it results in rubbing of adjacent fiber-wrapped tips against each other with llufng of the absorbent libers giving the berwrapped tip a loose and unattractive appearance when the swabs are removed. With the present sample packages, although the package is substantially filled with swabs, there is still some space in the envelope permitting relative movement between adjacent swabs with some resulting friction between the swab ends and uing of the fibers. Also, packages of this type are relatively expensive, particularly for sample products such as the sample swabs contained therein.

It is an object of the present invention to prepare a swab package in which the packaged swabs are rmly anchored to avoid any relative movement with respect to each other in the package. It is a further object of the present invention to prepare a package which can be readily opened and individual swabs removed without disturbing the remaining swabs. A still further object of the present invention is a package which can be readily prepared with automatic machinery and which can be easily attached as a sample package to display cards or other items of merchandise.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein are set forth by way of illustration and example certain embodiments of the invention.

Referring to the drawings,

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective View of the package;

FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of the package with a section in the center removed to show the swab stems therein;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 3

3,056,493 Patented Oct. 2, 1962 showing the attachment of the swabs to the bottom panel of the enclosing envelope; and

FIG. 5 is a display card with a sample swab package secured thereto.

The swab package 1 is in the form of an envelope having a front panel 2 and a back panel 3. The back panel 3 has an adhesive-coated section 4 extending across Ithe panel to which is secured the stems 5 of the cotton swabs contained in the package 1. The swabs are positioned parallel with respect to each other, side by side, and extending in the lengthwise direction of package 1. The ends of the swabs are provided with tightly wrapped bers forming the absorbent fibrous bodies 6 which are used in applying medication, swabbing minor injuries or similar uses. The absorbent tips 6 of adjacent swabs are adjacent each other but are prevented from relative movement by the adhesive 4 securing the stems of the swabs to the back panel 3 of the containing envelope.

In the exploded view of FIG. 1, the package is seen from the top, whereas in the view of FIG. 2 the package is seen from the bottom. The front panel 2 of the envelope of package 1 is longer than the back panel 3, although of equal width, and extends beyond the back panel 3 at each end, as shown in FIG. 2, to provide anges 7 and 8 which are coated with adhesive 9 for securing the sample package 1 to a display card 10, as illustrated in FIG. 5, or to some other objects, such for example as a package containing some other item with which the sample package of swabs is to be distributed. The adhesive 9 is preferably an adhesive that is nontacky until activated. The adhesive 9 is then activated just prior to or during application of the sample package to a carrier, such for example as card 10. Although water or other solvent activatable adhesives may be used, it is preferred to use for adhesive 9 a thermoplastic adhesive which is rendered tacky through the application of heat. The sample packages, because of the normally non-tacky nature of the adhesive 9, need not necessarily be secured to a carrier, but may be placed in with other merchandise or handed out as separate packages without being secured to any other article. Also, if desired, several of the packages can be stacked together in boxes and distributed or sold in this manner.

The two panels, 2 and 3, forming the envelope are sealed together around their peripheral edges by any suitable adhesive. In the package illustrated in the drawings, the adhesive is placed both on the front panel 2 and on the back panel 3 in the areas 11 and 12, respectively, the adhesive 9 being the same as the adhesive 11, which at the ends of front panel 2 extends beyond the ends of Ithe back panel 3.

The packages 1 are preferably formed by machinery which feeds a continuous strip of paper which has been coated with a thermoplastic adhesive in a pattern such as to form a succession of panels coated in the manner of back panel 3, as illustrated at 4 and 12 in FIG. l. The swabs are then placed with their stems 5 extending across the adhesive-coated portion 4 at spaced intervals. A second paper strip, wider than the first strip, with a pattern of adhesive coated on it to give a series of panels coated in the manner as illustrated by front panel 2 in FIG. l is then superimposed over the strip forming panel 3 so that the adhesive-coated areas 11 of the top strip are aligned with the peripheral adhesive-coated area 12 of the bottom strip. The two strips with the swabs therebetween are then passed under a die which, through heat and pressure, simultaneously seals the top and bottom strips together along the adhesive-coated areas 11 and 12 and the swab stems 5 to adhesive-coated area 4 to completely enclose the swabs and seal the stems of the swabs to the bottom strip or back panel 3. Since the second or top strip, which forms front panel 2, is wider than the a first or bottom strip, which forms back panel 3, the edges of the top strip extend beyond the edges of the bottom strip to provide the adhesive-coated ilanges 7 and 8, illustrated in FG. 2. The continuous strip of sealed packages is then severed into individual packages l, such as the package illustrated in the drawings.

In opening the package, it is torn along dotted line 13 and edge 14- is removed. This makes the swabs immediately available through insertion of the fingers through the opening resulting from removal of the edge 14. However, since the stems of the swabs are adhesively secured to the yback panel 3, swabs not removed are maintained in the package in their secured positions and will not fall out should the package, for example, be placed in a handbag or in some other area pending the need for further swabs. Also, the tightly wrapped cotton fiber ends are prevented from rubbing against each other and are thus maintained in their tightly wrapped state, preserving their neat and attractive appearance and reducing the chance of loose fibers coming detached when the swab is used. Furthermore, even though open, the envelope acts to protect the swabs and keep the same clean, which is not the case with the packages heretofore used where the swabs were loose `and would tend to fallout of the package, once opened.

Where it is desired that the swabs be sterile, the paper used in forming the envelope is such that it will permit sterilization while preventing the access of air-borne bacteria.

By providing the extending end edges 7 and S with a thermoplastic adhesive, the package 1 can be readily secured by light pressure and ironing to any carton, article or display card with which one wants to distribute the sample swabs.

The invention is susceptible to many modifications within its spirit, and it is accordingly to be limited only by the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. An absorbent swab package comprising:

a first panel,

an adhesive border extending along each end of said first panel,

.an adhesive border extending along each side of said first panel intersecting said adhesive borders extending along the ends of said first panel,

an adhesive strip on said first panel placed between said adhesive end borders and extending towards said adhesive side borders the area of said first panel between said adhesive strip and said adhesive end borders being free of adhesive,

a plurality of swabs each having a stem portion and an absorbent body of fibers secured to at least one end of said stem portion,

the stem portion of each of said swabs being secured at a point between its ends to said first panel by means of the adhesive of said adhesive strip and the ends of said stem portions with fibers thereon being directly over said adhesive free areas of said first panel,

and a second panel covering said panel and the swabs contained thereon said second panel being secured to said first panel by adhesion at said adhesive end borders and said adhesive side borders.

.2. A package of claim l in which the stems of said swabs are parallel to each other and .are parallel to said adhesive side borders.

3. A package of claim 1 in which the adhesive is a thermoplastic adhesive.

4. A package of claim l in which an absorbent body of bers is secured to both ends of said stems.

5. An absorbent swab package of claim l in which one of said panels is longer than the other of said panels, the ends of said longer panel extending beyond the ends of the shorter panel, said extending ends of said longer panel being adapted to be adhesively secured to a carrier for said package.

6. An absorbent swab package of claim 5 in which the extending ends of said longer panel are coated with a thermoplastic adhesive.

7. The method of making a swab package comprising placing a strip of adhesive on a first sheet, placing a plurality of swabs each having a stem portion and absorbent fibrous end portions on said first sheet with at least a portion of each of said stems extending over said adhesive strip, placing `a second sheet over said first sheet and said swabs contained thereon and thereafter securing said stems to said rst sheet by means of said adhesive and ,adhesively securing said second sheet to said first sheet around said swabs to completely enclose the same.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said adhesive on said first sheet for adhesively securing said swab stems is a thermoplastic `adhesive and at least one of said sheets contains a thermoplastic adhesive on the periphery thereof for bonding said first sheet to said second sheet, the swab stems being bonded to said first sheet and said first and second sheets being bonded together by heat and pressure.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,263,218 Fischer Apr. 16, 1918 2,165,539 Dahlgren July 11, 1939 2,454,821 McKee Nov. 30, 1948 2,902,146 Doherty Sept. 1, 1959 

